A.J. Steward enters his fourth year of coaching the Rice running backs. He was promoted to running backs coach on March 7, 2014 after spending the previous two seasons as an offensive graduate assistant.

Steward once again has a deep corps of running backs at his disposal in 2017, led by juniors Samuel Stewart and Austin Walter and sophomores Emmauel Esupka and Nashon Ellerbe who averaged a combined 5.6 yards per carry (159/892) while scoring 10 times on the ground.

In his time at Rice, he has already seen two of his backs move in the Rice career rushing lists, with Darik Dillard finishing seventh with 2,198 and Jowan Davis tied for eighth (2,028) while becoming just the second set of running backs to top 2,000 career yards in the same season.

Steward originally joined the staff prior to the 2012 season as a GA after graduating from the University of Kansas with a BSE in Health and Physical Education.

Steward was a four-year letterman at Kansas. Originally recruited as a quarterback, Steward found his first playing time as a wide receiver before switching to tight end. He was a member of the 2008 Orange Bowl Championship team, earning the Otto Schnellbacher Scout Team Player of the Year as a quarterback, as well as the 2008 Insight Bowl champions.